What Goes Around Comes Around
by Kingsforcedvacation
Summary: Inspired from Ratchet's Runaround by Purple Aussie on fanfiction (I recommend reading it first). Prowl misses another medical exam from Ratchet and Ratchet has had enough. Originally named Irony.


Ratchet hummed to himself as he prepared his tools for the rest of the day. Today was the day he usually dreaded, the start of the monthly medical exams. It wouldn't be so bad if a certain not to be named- coughProwlcough- officer didn't go out of his way to avoid them for no other reason but to annoy him. He hadn't realized the stress it had caused him to go through the pains of tracking them down.

"_This time will be different," _Ratchet thought brightly, relaxed in a way he hasn't been in years. "_This time Prowl has scheduled an appointment. This time I won't have to spend weeks trying to pin him down long enough for me to do the scans."_

With that thought in head Ratchet almost floated to the Rec room for a cube of energon before his day started, scaring most of the mechs he passed with his unusually good mood.

…

Prowl stretched after he finished the last of the paperwork that had been piled on his desk. Glancing at the clock he still had two hours before he had to get to the med bay. He stood up and walked to his door and opened it just as Jazz was about to knock.

"Hey Prowler," Jazz greeted cheerfully.

"Don't call me that," Prowl retorted immediately. "What do you need?"

"I just finished the plans for the next ops mission. I was hopping you had some time to go over them with me."

Glancing at the clock again Prowl nodded, "I still have some time."

One and a half hours later Prowl led Jazz out his door then headed for the rec room to get a cube before his exam. Walking in Prowl sighed at the sight before him. Sunstreaker and Cliffjumper were fighting again.

"_Looks like I might be a little late," _He thought to himself as he went to break up the fight.

…

Oblivious to the troubles in the rec room, Ratchet hummed on, skillfully repairing the dents Sideswipe had gotten when he thought it would be a good idea to jump off a cliff to practice his aerial maneuvers only to trip and fall down the cliff.

Sideswipe for his part was waring between being embarrassed of his slip up or fearing whatever had put the usually grumpy medic in such a good mood.

…

Prowl walked out of the brig with a few minutes to spare before his appointment. Sighing to himself he started towards the med bay, when someone came up behind him and started to drag him away. Startled he looked behind him and saw Grimlock dragging him towards the dino-bot's cave.

"Why did you bring me hear Grimlock?" Prowl demanded, annoyed at being dragged away without his concent.

"You Prowl tell us dino-bots why cars eat us dino-bots," Grimlock ordered.

Prowl just barely stopped himself from groaning. This was going to take a while.

…

Ratchet's mood dimmed as Prowl's slotted time came and went but he stayed optimistic. Prowl probably just got dragged away to explain something important.

…

"-and that is what fossil fuels are. No cars are actually trying to eat you," Prowl finished.

The dino-bots nodded their understanding, and finally Prowl was free to go. Taking a few deep breaths to calm his annoyance, Prowl walked by Wheeljack's lab (which, unfortunately was on the only rout to get to the med bay from the caves) just in time to hear Wheeljack's loud oops.

Relying on years of experience, Prowl ducked into the nearest room and slammed the door shut just in time to avoid the blast from Wheeljack's latest experiment. Once he was sure there would be no more explosions Prowl opened the door, or tried too. It was stuck.

:Prowl to Grapple: Prowl commed. :Prowl to Grapple, can you hear me?:

So not only was the door stuck but his comms weren't working and no one knew he was down here. He was well and truly stuck.

"The one time I actually try to get my medical done, and I never even made it near the med bay," Prowl muttered to himself before his optics went wide. "Ratchet might just kill me this time."

…

When Ratchet's shift ended, he had to finally admit to himself that Prowl wasn't coming.

"_I really am gullible," _Ratchet thought bitterly to himself as he sat in his office. _"Of course, Prowl was never going to come. It was probably just another lie to give himself a head start to his little game."_

Ratchet nearly snarled at the thought of another round of keep-away-from-the-medic. Though it wasn't really keep-away-from-the-medic if it only applied to Ratchet, now was it. All at once the anger seemed to drain out of the medic, leaving him feeling defeated.

_"Why does he do this to me? Only me? I'm not that bad of a bot, am I? I put them back together, I loose hours of recharge watching over them when they're injured, I spend hours a day pouring over their files to make sure I can fix them when they break, I pray over their broken chassis when their on the brink of death!" _Ratchet had worked himself back up into a rage at this point. _"I do all this for them, for him, and more! I don't deserve this! If he doesn't want me to do the medical this badly then I shall bow to his wishes, someone else will take care of him from now on."_

Decision made, he stood up to leave when a data pad caught his eye. It was the data pad that Prowl had given him during his last medical. Snatching it up Ratchet held it over the trash bin. He stood there for a while before snorting and shoving the data pad into a random drawer, then stalked out of the office.

Hoist looked up and greeted him with a smile, "Hey Ratchet, did you get all of the medicals done?"

Ratchet bit back a growl, "All but one. I'm leaving Prowl to you."

Hoist startled at that, "But you usually do the medicals."

"And now I'm leaving Prowl to you, after all, you did a good job last time you did it. Besides it seems like someone else doing it is the only way for it to get done in a timely manner," Ratchet muttered the last part to himself.

"If you want me too," Hoist agreed, slightly confused but not willing to argue it. "Well, good night Ratchet."

"Have an uneventful shift, Hoist."

…

It was several hours later that someone found Prowl, when they were moving the debris from the explosion.

"Prowl? How long have you been in there?" Skyfire asked, surprised.

"Too long," Prowl almost growled out. "I'm leaving, I have things to do that have been put off for too long already."

"Alright, but you might want to stop by the med bay to get looked over, just in case," Skyfire advised then went back to helping move the rubble.

Prowl just nodded, refraining from saying that that was were he had been trying to get to the whole time. It took him only a few minutes to reach the med bay.

"Hey Prowl," Hoist greeted.

"Hoist," Prowl relied with a nod. "Is Ratchet here?"

"No, his shift ended two hours ago."

Prowls shoulders dropped.

"By the way, Ratchet handed your medical over to me. If you want to, I can squeeze you in now?" Hoist offered.

Prowl froze, "_Ratchet handed me over to someone else?"_

"Prowl?" Hoist called in concern.

Prowl shook his head, "Not tonight, Hoist. It has been an eventful day."

Hoist nodded in understanding before turning back to his task.

Prowl walked to his office in a daze, "_Why did he hand me over to someone else? Was he that angry that I missed my medical? I will just explain what happened tomorrow, and then everything will be fine, won't it?"_

…

The next day Prowl mad his way to the med bay early. When he arrived the med bay was empty except for Ratchet who was cleaning his medical equipment.

"Hello Ratchet," Prowl greeted calmly. "I wanted to-"

Prowl stopped mid-sentence as Ratchet did something that froze the energon in his veins. He turned around and smiled. It wasn't a happy smile. It was big, beaming, and so painfully fake.

"Prowl," Ratchet greeted politely.

Prowl stared at him, an unknown feeling flooding his processor. After a minute he shook himself out of it and forced himself to continue.

"I wanted to apologize for not coming yesterday, I was caught in one of Wheeljack's explosions and ended up trapped in a room for the rest of the day and no comms to call for help," he explained with all of the confidence he could gather while Ratchet was looking at him like that.

Ratchet just smiled sweetly, "You don't have to apologize. I know you would never purposefully miss a checkup. It's just not in your programing."

Prowl flinched and his fuel tank dropped. Ratchet had never acted like this before. Prowl had seen him yelling in anger, shaking in rage, and drowning in sorrow, but he had never once heard such sickeningly sweet words flow from the medic's lips, especially ones that struck like daggers.

"I would like to inform you that I have given the task of doing your mandatory checkup to Hoist, so when you decide to get it done please make an appointment with him," Ratchet continued, heedless of the sick feeling growing in Prowls' fuel tank.

"But you always do the medical exams when you are here," Prowl protested.

"I do, but, since my presence seems to make you run in the opposite direction, I thought you might appreciate a different examiner."

Prowl opened his mouth to protest again, but Ratchet cut him off.

"Now, unless you have a medical problem please leave the med bay, I have a lot of work to be done," Ratchet said politely as he gently escorted Prowl out, then he turned away leaving Prowl gaping in front of the med bay doors.

That had not gone how he had expected at all, and he had a feeling things wouldn't be getting better any time soon.

…

Over the next few days Prowl tried constantly to talk to Ratchet, but the medic was avoiding him. What made it worse was that he was using his own tactics against him. He pulled double shifts, left the ARK on his days off, and would turn around and walk in the opposite direction if they ended up in the same hall.

Avoiding Ratchet's exams had started as a joke. He got to practice his tactics in none battle orientated subjects and he enjoyed seeing Ratchet driven to rage. It had all been fun and games. He never realized the strain he was putting on his relationship with the CMO. Now that he was on the receiving end, he could understand why Ratchet sometimes looked like he wanted to cry in frustration. He never understood what exactly he was doing to the medic, and, now that he did, his guilt was eating him alive.

"_Now I know what the humans mean when they say, 'getting a taste of your own medicine'," _Prowl thought bitterly.

He needed to fix this, somehow.

…

Prowl finally managed to corner Ratchet in the rec room as he got his energon.

"Hello Ratchet. Do you have time to talk?" Prowl asked as the medic started to leave.

Ratchet stopped and gave him a professional smile, startling everyone in the room.

"Not now. I have papers that I must deliver to Optimus. Maybe later," Ratchet responded before pushing past the second in command.

Prowl sighed, staring after the fleeing medic.

"Hey Prowl," Cliffjumper called, snickering. "What do you have over Ratchet to make him be polite to you?"

To Cliffjumpers' surprise Prowls' usually stiff wings drooped before he walked out of the rec room. He looked more defeated than any could ever remember seeing him.

"What's wrong with him?" he asked no one in particular.

Jazz was the one to answer him, "Cliffjumper, how does Ratchet show us that he cares."

"He yells and throws things at us," he answered immediately, not getting the point.

"So, what does it mean when Ratchet stops yelling?"

Cliffjumpers' optics widened as realization struck him.

"Prowl went too far, and now he's trying to figure out how to undo the damage he's caused," Jazz finished, staring after his friend with pity in his optics.

…

Prowl tried again and again to fix things between him and Ratchet, neglecting food and sleep for what he saw as much more important. He was slowly running himself into the ground, but he didn't care, he needed to make things right. No matter what he did, however, nothing seemed to work.

Slowly he made his way to the med bay once more, ignoring the looks of concern he was getting from his comrades. When he got there, he found Ratchet leaning over a counter looking over someone's medical files.

When Ratchet heard someone come in, he turned around with a scowl, intending to yell at whichever idiot managed to land himself in the med bay this time, but his scowl quickly melted into a polite smile when he saw who it was. Prowl's spark broke a little at the difference.

"What can I do for you Officer Prowl?"

Prowl froze at the title. Ratchet had never called him or anyone else (except for Prime) by their titles, and that was what finally pushed him over the edge. All of the guilty, sorrow, pain, lack of sleep, and lack of energon came crashing down on him like a tidal wave. Prowl fell to his knees at Ratchets' feet and started to cry.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," Prowl babbled. "I never realized how much it hurt to be avoided. I never meant to hurt you, Ratchet. I'm sorry, I never- I never- I didn't think- I- I- I-"

Prowl was beyond speech at this point, crying into his hands, each sob coming with such force that it shook his entire frame. He was so lost in his misery that he flinched when a strong pair of arms wrapped around him and picked him up. He glanced up through tear filled optics to see Ratchet holding him close as he carried him to a near by med berth and sat down on it. He pulled the Tactician closer and allowed him to cry himself into a much-needed recharge.

Prowl awoke a few hours later feeling drained but strangely lighter. Turning his head, he saw Ratchet sitting next to him, reading a data pad.

"I'm sorry," Prowl said again.

At that Ratchet gave him a small, genuine (much to Prowl's relief) smile, "I know."

After that Ratchet started yelling at him about his health. Prowl gave a laugh of relief.

"Now get your aft out of my med bay!" Ratchet finished.

Prowl went to comply with a smile when Hoist came storming in, his face darkening when he saw Prowl.

"You! I was wrong to ever doubt Ratchet when he said you would go to any length to avoid the exam! You- you- you-" Hoist just growled and stormed back out of the med bay, leaving two stunned mechs staring after him.

Ratchet gave Prowl a questioning look, and, to his disbelief, Prowl actually blushed.

"I got so caught up in trying to earn your forgiveness that I forgot all about Hoist and the medical exam," Prowl admitted sheepishly.

Ratchet stared at him for a minute before bursting into full blown laughter.

"I'm guessing that means you still need to get your exam done?"

Prowl nodded warily.

"I think I can squeeze you in."

With a relived smile Prowl hopped back onto the med berth and allowed Ratchet to conduct the exam.

Unnoticed in Ratchet's office, a single data pad was displayed proudly on his desk, right where it belonged.


End file.
